


Night Breeze

by mammoth_bones



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Earth Kingdon citizen!Akaashi, Hundred Years War era, Other, a meaningful late-night conversation, firebender!Bokuto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 11:58:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8444959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mammoth_bones/pseuds/mammoth_bones
Summary: It's been a long and boring war for Bokuto. He's stuck playing soldier in the Earth Kingdom while the rest of his friends live it up back home with their usual parties and gossip. It's a good thing they all hate the war as much as him, or he'd be completely alone. It takes a surprise meeting long past his bedtime for Bokuto to do something about it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! Since this is my first work here and it's unbeta'd, I apologize in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes. Please let me know what you think of it!

  _Dear Koutarou,_

_Shit, that sounds tacky. I promise I haven’t turned into some old lady since you’ve been gone. Seriously. By the time you get this letter, you probably would’ve figured out I got delayed AGAIN. But I finally made it onto the convoy this time, which is better than last month. There was a bunch of shit going on during the trip; a nasty storm that blew us way off course to the south, it got really cold closer to the south pole so Kenma got sick (I convinced him to come too!), and then when we finally made it to the Earth Kingdom the locals tried to attack our ship!! Down here there’s still a bunch of resistance that’s been giving the military escort a bit of trouble, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. I’m just glad I’m able to serve the Fire Lord as something other than a common soldier. Being rich and important has its perks, huh? Although it’s probably different for you, since you get to help your dad out with all the important military stuff. And monitor the earthbending camp. Have you gotten to see any of the earthbenders up close? Or help catch any that try to escape? I hope you get to show them your awesome lightning moves… I wasn’t allowed to try on the ship and Kenma gets angry if I bring it up on land. Heh. Have you met anyone cute lately? Tell me EVERYTHING that’s happened since your last letter. Leave nothing out. But really, I should be arriving there sometime in the next two weeks, if everything goes well (which it will, so no worrying about me!). Even though he won’t say it, I know Kenma misses you. I miss you more, like to the sun and back a thousand times. So yeah, I should probably stop this letter before I run out of paper and your poor bird gets too heavy to fly. Hang tight, and I promise we’ll be there soon!_

_Your best best best friend,_

_T.K. (totally kool)_

Koutarou sighed loudly, letting the paper fall to the floor in front of him. He had finally opened it a week after it arrived, and all it had to say were a few more meaningless promises. His best friends had abandoned him. He was stuck somewhere out in the Earth Kingdom with nobody but soldiers to talk to while Kuroo and Kenma got to be lounging away in the Fire Nation Capital. The closest village to him had been burned and all its bending inhabitants carted off to a work camp nearby. It wasn’t as if Koutarou could say anything against it, no matter how much he wanted to. Anything said against the Fire Lord or his vision for the world was automatic banishment, and that was almost the lighter end of things. Kuroo had learned to bullshit loyalty to the Fire Nation in his letters too, which were the only lies Koutarou trusted in them. It was a good thing he was a court official’s son, or the scars earned from his _agni kai_ would’ve spread to his face as well.

          The entire thing was stupid. His best friend didn’t deserve so much pain for one misstep against the Fire Lord. The poor benders, and there were hundreds of them from the nearby village _alone_ , didn’t deserve to be taken from their families and forced to slave away for a tyrant nation they hated.

Koutarou pulled his knees further into his chest. He was huddled on the floor in the corner by his bed, reading the letter by the light of his own fire. The room was thrown into darkness when he let it go out. Something had started Fluffy, his messenger owl, and got her squawking from the perch by the open window.

          He poked his eyes above his bedspread. He didn’t want to scare whatever it was away before he got a chance to properly view it. His heart thrummed in anticipation. Maybe it was a handsome boy owl? He’d have to leave then, even if it was the middle of the night. There was always someone in the kitchen he could talk to if he really wanted.

          Something even darker than the night sky slithered through the window. A shadow? Fluffy hooted some more, flapping her wings anxiously. The figure, Koutarou could tell by now it was probably a human, reached out fingers in what it assumed was a calming manner to quiet the great horned owl. She snapped at the fingers, exactly like Koutarou knew she would. That wasn’t how Fluffy liked being handled.

          The shadow jumped back in alarm. It turned slowly, trying to take in as much of the room as possible in the near blackness. Koutarou almost shrieked when its face turned to where he was hiding. It was a good thing his hair was down for the night, or the intruder would’ve noticed him watching. He froze as solid as ice, not daring to breathe. If he held perfectly still he could pass unnoticed. The figure turned its head to the side slightly. It was wearing some sort of mask with bold black details and what were probably yellow accents. In Koutarou’s eyes, it looked like some sort of spirit owl.

          Seemingly satisfied it had entered unnoticed, the intruder began picking its way through the mess of clothes on the floor to the door. Not so fast. Koutarou wasn’t about to let this… assassin? spy? earthbender? escape without a fight. He crept to his feet, sliding as silently as possible around the edge of his room to get behind the person. He hoped Fluffy’s noises would mask his own clumsy feet.

          “Gotcha!” Koutarou grabbed the figure from behind, slamming it by the shoulders onto his desk. The person- Koutarou was pretty sure it was a guy- grunted loudly from the impact. Something clattered onto the desk beside his hand. “A knife? So you _are_ an assassin!” Koutarou gasped. He couldn’t stamp down the flare of excitement in his chest. This was the most interesting thing to happen to him since coming here, and there was no way he would lose their fight. In fact, Koutarou was pretty sure he’d already won. The intruder’s struggles were pointless under Koutarou’s much bigger muscles. He grinned for a moment before realizing… he had no idea what to do next. Call in one of the soldiers? Have a good fire-vs-earth sparring match which he would _totally_ win? “So, um, who did you come to kill?”

          “I’m not saying anything until you release me,” the intruder replied. Koutarou blinked. The guy sounded about his age, but with that Earth Kingdom lilt to his words that normally sounded like a dog that had swallowed some rocks. This one, however, made it sound more like the calm hum of the wind through trees.

          Koutarou couldn’t decide what to do. He wanted to know what the Earth Kingdom spy was doing in his bedroom in the middle of the night, but that meant letting him go. And letting hostages take any sort of upper hand was something his father said was as good as admitting defeat. Hm… He grabbed the knife before the intruder could react, slipping it into his belt. Now he could _definitely_ keep the upper hand.

          The intruder slid off Koutarou’s desk on his stomach, positioning himself between Koutarou and the door to the hall. Koutarou squinted, but only the white parts of the mask were visible in the darkness. “Don’t move, okay? I’m just gonna light one of the lamps.” He grabbed the oil lantern off his desk and lit it with a snap of his fingers. The dark eyeholes of the mask never left Koutarou’s hands as he let the fire go out and set the lantern back in its place. “Better. Now, who were you hoping to kill tonight?”

          The figure’s shoulders were visibly tense. He had clearly seen Koutarou’s overpowering muscles. Koutarou flexed once more, just for good measure. “I did not come here with the intent to kill, if I could avoid it in any way. I need information about the camp nearby.”

          Koutarou relaxed immediately. “Oh, that’s all?”

“What do you mean by that?” The pretty voice was tense, like its owner didn’t trust that Koutarou’s ease wasn’t a trap.

          “I’m gonna guess you wanna break the other earthbenders out, yeah? So, like, you probably want the floorplan, right?” Koutarou asked.

          The intruder shifted to his other foot. The low lighting of the lamp and the bagginess of his clothes kept Koutarou from seeing if he had any other weapons hidden somewhere. Koutarou hoped not, because he bent down under his bed to find where he had shoved the scrolls. “Found it!” Koutarou kicked the box back under his bed and sat down.

          “Why are you pretending to help me?”

          The question caught Koutarou off guard, but he supposed it was a fair thing to ask. “Not everyone in the Fire Nation agrees with what’s happening,” Koutarou winked. “But it’s basically impossible to run an inside job without getting in some serious shit.” He rolled the scroll open on his bedspread. “Come sit.”

          The intruder hesitated, clearly very confused at what Koutarou was asking of him.

          “Yo, I don’t bite.”

          Cautiously, the intruder lowered himself onto Koutarou’s bed. Koutarou was too wrapped up in studying the map of the camp to notice the awkward way his unexpected guest perched on the edge of the mattress like it might burn him. “Do-do you have a schedule of the guards and their stations as well?”

          Koutarou’s bright golden eyes bored into the owl mask. Weirdish question. “Why does that matter? Most of the camp is surrounded by hills and shit. You can just blast through the walls with big rocks from those.” He cocked his head to the side, confused as to why the masked person hadn’t thought of that before. Koutarou had been forced to prepare a list of theoretical escape opportunities by his father, and even he had noted the boulders would be the easiest way to launch a counterattack.

          “I’m afraid that’s impossible. My entire family was taken from our village and put in there, so it has been extremely difficult to mount a rescue with the few other villagers left behind. I need a way through the defences so I can free them from the inside,” he stated.

          “I still don’t see why you can’t just bring down a mount-“

          “I can’t bend, you idiot. I believe only way I can help my family is to get inside the camp itself and sneak them out without any of the guards noticing. And then _my family_ can bring down the walls,” he snapped, interrupting Koutarou. Koutarou could taste the bitterness in his tone.

          “I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” he pleaded. “Oh, I’m Koutarou, by the way. Nice to meet you.” He held out a hand eagerly. The masked guy shook it gingerly.

          “Likewise. My name is Keiji,” he responded, voice much more even.

          “Koutarou grinned. “Nice to meet you! I’m sorry about your village, by the way. That probably doesn’t mean a lot coming from a firebender, but I promise we’re not all so terrible.” He paused for a moment. “Why don’t you take off your mask?”

          “I still don’t know you won’t alert someone to my presence the moment I leave, so I’d rather you not know what I look like,” Keiji replied.

          Koutarou shrugged. “What can I say? ‘Black hair, green eyes, looks like he’s from the Earth Kingdom?’ Unless you’ve got a massive schnoz or something hidin’ under your mask, I can’t really give anyone much to go off of.”

          Keiji sighed wearily, yet Koutarou had the feeling he was smiling. “Could we please…” He gestured to the map that lay between them with a gloved hand.

          “Oh. Right. So, there are always gonna be four guards positioned here, and…”

          Fifteen minutes later, they stood in unison. Keiji had the marked-up scroll Koutarou had scribbled all over tucked under his arm as he walked back to the window. Fluffy picked up her flapping again, so Koutarou shushed her gently. Poor owl needed a good few hours of hunting before she turned on _him_. Koutarou unclipped her ankle and she was gone without a backwards glance.

          “Beautiful bird,” Keiji commented.

          “I know, right?” Koutarou beamed. “She’s good company here while my friends hang out back at home without me. Oh, here’s your knife back!” He was so proud he remembered it.

          Keiji shook his head. “That’s all right; I have other things I can use instead. Don’t worry about your friends. You’ve done so much more for this war, and that’s what counts. To my village you’ll be a hero. You risked punishment for treason and you’ve never even met them.”

          “Huh… I guess you’re right! I’m pretty cool, aren’t I?” Koutarou puffed proudly. He would tell Kuroo what happened, but that was it.

          “I should be going now, Koutarou. Words cannot express my gratitude for your help with freeing the people from my village, so… thank you.” Keiji ducked his head. He slid one leg out of the window, head pivoting to scan the trees and forest floor for troops.

          Koutarou put a hand on Keiji’s shoulder. “Wait! Will you come back sometime?” he whined.

          Keiji chuckled softly. What a beautiful noise. “I don’t suppose you’ll be seeing more of me unless it’s my face on a wanted poster. You never know, I might even let you keep the reward money!” His tone grew more somber again. “Goodbye, Koutarou.”

          “Bye, Keiji,” Koutarou whispered to the gentle night breeze.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I've got a much larger fic planned for the next month (it's gonna be my NaNo project this year, I just know it) that takes place during the Korra era.This drabble isn't meant to be included in that in any way, although I'm taking one or two ideas from this for that. I should have the first chapter up by Friday or so, so stay tuned!


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